By: Lord Randall
While it would be easy to write some witty blurb, a couple overdone compliments and abbreviated summary of what got Sweden’s WATAIN where they are and what led to the creation of the most complete and destructive album of their careers, Lawless Darkness, it’s best to let founding vocalist/bassist Erik Danielsson take it from here.
Lord Randall: I would if possible like to get a statement from you on the recent passing of Ronnie James Dio. Where you first heard his music, what it meant to you, etc.
Erik D: Dio to me was one of the few artists within metal whose work permeated all of its subgenres with its brilliance. Everything he was involved with became brilliant, a true sign of being a messenger of a greater force.
Lord Randall: Going back a bit, Sworn To The Dark definitely catapulted WATAIN into the spotlight, getting the band more attention than it had experienced before. What do you think it was that led to this? Back when Sworn… was being created, did you know what you wanted to achieve, or was it simply business as usual for WATAIN?
Erik D: Our only goal has always been to perform Black Metal worthy of the moniker, brilliant enough to be called the gospel of Satan. The reason we have been so elevated within the black metal genre is because the power of such intentionally Satanic music cannot be held back. It must rise and expand, for it knows no other way of being. There has never been an agenda of becoming one of the most well known Black metal bands, or to be in the spotlight. These are natural things that will happen if you are performing music with such characteristics.
Lord Randall: You had been involved in DISSECTION at least to some degree shortly before Jon [Nodveidt] passed away, but as always the rumor mill churns, only a minuscule percentage of which is even seasoned with – much less the full – truth. What was your role in DISSECTION, and do you think that your time there and Jon’s suicide might have at least sonically colored the huge, bestial mix we got with Sworn…?
Erik D: Besides working with Jon on their websites, merch designs etc I also played bass on the last three DISSECTION performances. Needless to say, it was a very special task that I will always remember and nourish from. I cannot say whether or not or to what extent my involvement in DISSECTION colored Sworn…, but since it was a very important event in my spiritual life, obviously it left its traces..
Lord Randall: What’s gone on in the years between Sworn… and the new album Lawless Darkness? Did you feel any pressure to build on the success of the previous album, or was the goal to create the best WATAIN album yet, regardless of public opinion?
Erik D: No, we never felt any pressure. We have just continued being WATAIN, with everything that means. Most of the time we have been out on the giant Fuck the World tour, reaping, burning, pillaging, fighting, praising our Father Satan and spreading the darkness of WATAIN. Other than that, we have been spending our time practicing magic, playing guitar, doing drugs, riding Harley Davidsons, fighting the world, avoiding the government and leading dissolute lives in general. We have been going deeper and deeper into the shadows of the unknown. Exploring further the mysteries of the darkside… This is also what has inspired a lot of the material on Lawless Darkness, and why it became such a rich and dynamic album. The time during which it was written was very special, very extreme and filled with many miracles… All of a sudden we found ourselves in the studio with the greatest set of hymns we had ever created.
Lord Randall: Were there certain things you wanted to make sure you stayed away from and others you wanted to maybe explore or ramp up your focus on that maybe you hadn’t before?
Erik D: No, we never compose in such an organized mindset. We just close our eyes and receive…
Lord Randall: You returned to Necromorbus Studios again for Lawless Darkness. What’s the setup like there, and how the Hell did you get such a huge sound?
Erik D: We returned there because it is a part of Watainian tradition, and our work with Tore is something we hold very high in regard. He respects us and we respect him, which is something very rare in our world. As for set up and how we achieved the sound, I am fully illiterate when it comes to these kind of things, so I’ll let Tore himself answer that:
Tore: Like with most of the things I work with, the setup was fairly basic. I had also studied the material quite a lot before we started recording and we spent the first couple of weeks just fine-tuning the tracks in the studio (sort of a jam session), so once we started recording I had a pretty clear image in my head how I wanted it to sound. Simply put, the main goal was to make it sound big. Careful attention was put into getting the drums tuned properly to fit the sound we were after, and that’s the whole secret to the drum sound, really. For the guitars, we actually went through a ton of different rigs before realizing that the very first setup we tried was by far the best. The amp was a Mesa Boogie Tremoverb head, which is pretty much the same as a Dual Rectifier with some extra features. It went through a Marshall 1960BX cabinet (with 25W Greenbacks) and was mic’d with a single SM57. The bass was split into a clean signal and a signal with an insane amount of distortion. This went back a bit to what we did on the first two albums. The vocals were recorded with a Neumann U89 mic, through an Amek Neve CIB if I remember correctly. Erik’s voice is pretty forgiving when it comes to mic choice, so this was really a matter of subtleties.
Lord Randall: Though obviously not following its tenets, the lyrics of Lawless Darkness are rife with Biblical references and imagery, revealing you to actually be quite well versed in portions of the Bible. Were you raised in a religious home, or did your desire to look into this Book upon which wars, hatred, and entire national governments founded come later?
Erik B: There are Biblical references sure, just as there are references to Qaballa, Vedic scripture, Babylonian lore, the pantheons of Khmer etc. The Devil lives in all of them, and WATAIN is first and foremost dedicated to him, in all his manifestations. The Bible is yet another source of knowledge, which I was obviously confronted with at an early age, living in a Western European country. It was never in a mandatory way, however. No one ever managed to force feed me with any form of knowledge or set of ideas. Satanism is in no way to be found in completeness within the Bible, however there are many a useful and thought provoking things written in that book that have always stayed with me and shaped my conception of things. Some of those are for example the Genesis with its many great and deep mysteries, the Nephilim myth, Cain murdering Abel and much more.
Lord Randall: It’s rather laughable how so many “satanic” metal bands spend so much of their time screeching and hollering about “puke blood on the virgin, destroy the fucking cross”, blah blah, blah, yet the majority have nothing solid upon which to base their dislike aside from the lyrical content of the bands they grew up with and they never investigate for themselves. I mean, sure, VENOM’s great and all, but isn’t it important in any battle to know what it is you’re fighting both for and against?
Erik D: The truth is that this is the way it’s always been in this genre. The general reluctance towards religion and especially Christianity is not necessarily a lie in itself, but it is seldomly based upon anything other than the conformist mindset of the general metalhead, and his will to belong to the metal brotherhood by doing the same as everyone else does. Well, it could be worse. Hating Christ is a good thing, and the more people that do so, the better. But what bothers me is when these people claim to be Satanists, which is an entirely different thing. Sure, the Satanist aims his sword at the church and its followers as well, but not because they represent the main religion of his country or that he was forced to sing psalms in school, but because they are the enemy of his god – a god to which he devotes his life.
Lord Randall: WATAIN is pretty reliable for its songs venturing into the 8-9 minute mark, but ending Lawless Darkness with the 14+ minute “Waters Of Ain” was just ballsy, man. Did you set out to craft this big, black epic or just look at yourselves at the end and go “Oh, shit, what’ve we done?”
Erik D: More along the lines of the latter I’d say. ”Waters Of Ain” really became a mastodon, but it was actually also one of the songs that took least time to write. It just came. I had been waiting many years in order to gain enough confidence and insight to approach the subject of the lyric, so when I finally did, it all happened very swiftly, like the opening of a levee.
Lord Randall: Some black metal bands avoid playing live at all costs, some don’t know when to get the hell off the stage. It all boils down to me to a band (regardless of genre) being able to deliver the goods in a live setting. Was WATAIN formed with the intention to be a live band and not just a studio creation? Also, what can one expect from a WATAIN performance?
Erik D: We never contemplated not also being a live band. I don’t say that the minute you form a band you should also be able to play live, I would not want to see BURZUM live to take an example. It just would not add anything to the BURZUM experience, as far as I can imagine. But in our case, we have found in the live ceremonies a perfect outlet for the madness of WATAIN, and it has become a very central aspect in our work as a band. The live shows to me are as much a representation of the band and an artistic expression as the albums, although I view them differently. They demand and they give different things.
What one can expect from a WATAIN live performance? In the right context and a suitable state of mind; a life altering glimpse into the forbidden paradise.
Lord Randall: What’s next in the coming months? Do you have any plans to cast your black cloud over the US at all?
Erik D: The black cloud has already been cast! In November we shall come and work in its great shadow. And the darkness shall descend not only upon the earth, but in the very hearts of men. And rain shall fall on the fertile soil that is the souls of your children, and from their tombs shall rise the plants of forbidden fauna, towering unto a sanctified spiral of warfare, in heaven and so alike on earth, yonder upward shall it rise TO CRUCIFY THE VERY FUNDAMENTS OF PARADISE.
